Subverted Dreams
by Sarshi
Summary: Weird dreams, crack, 1 Kagome, 2 Sesshoumaru's, time travel fun. A series of chapters that can be read as stand-alones, written for the SessKag group's contests on Deviant Art. It's a prize winner : D
1. Spring Madness

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi

AN: Written for the #sesskag Spring Competition over on DA. Just a little something I wrote when I was feeling insanely fangirlish after watching a doctor who episode.

Later AN: This chapter won third prize ^^

Spring Madness

"There's something you _should_ know," Kagome said as she woke up next to Inuyasha, drowsy with the images that had just been before her eyes, when she'd _thought_ she'd woken up but hadn't. "It's not that I entirely oppose flowers, or looking at them, but this is...."

The sakura blossoms turned red and floated into the pink sky, rotating slowly in a building tornado that was just about to become somebody's nightmare. And, yes, there it was, the orange clouds gathering into floating dark mountains of exhaust fumes, the flower petals growing heads and feet, crying in a dark, cheerful chorus "going up!" and then swirling faster and faster as, next to her, Inuyasha....

She turned her head. It wasn't him, he wasn't there to save her. The demon next to her was Sesshoumaru, impassively and coldly watching her, his eyes pinning her in the air, making her unable to move.

"You will die," he announced. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, and then she saw that no, there was an alternative, which the dog demon would offer her and she'd take it and be happy for it. "Of course, you can also sleep with _him_ and maybe that will change his mind. As long as he's interested in you. It might not be long."

She turned and saw a man, entirely blue, entirely naked, entirely impassive looking at her without any sort of emotion.

Then she thankfully woke up screaming, seeing the darkness of her own room at home, dimly lit by the street lamps outside, the ceiling, the shapes of objects in her very own, very private, very comfortable, very non-blue-person-non-Sesshoumaru-non-sakura-non-pink bedroom.

"Why do I have such messed up dreams!"

She swore and turned the other way in bed. It was an old way to break a nightmare or a dream. She didn't know why it worked, but it did and she sure as anything didn't want a revisit to _that_ place.

Maybe her subconscious was trying to tell her something? _You think pink is the color of the Apocalypse. _No, that couldn't be it. _You are afraid Inuyasha will go away and you'll be alone and helpless_. So what else was new? _You see Sesshoumaru as a_... Nope, no clue about what he was. A murderous, cruel, fate-deciding monster, maybe? _You are afraid of tomorrow's meeting with your friends to see the flowering trees_. Again, what else was new?

_Films really do freak you out_. No, they didn't. _Come on, admit it. The blue guy was Dr. Manhattan from "Watchmen". _So what? That didn't meant anything. _Pervert. Sleep with him, eh? You have an uncanny attraction towards_.... Stuff it, subconscious. This Kagome wasn't about to listen. _I'm the voice in your head, every day I will be there, if you cannot stand it, I don't care_.

Kagome groaned and threw the pillow against the wall. A voice in your head can be the sign of insanity. A singing, taunting voice occupying said place was worse. She needed a walk. She needed anything that could get her out of the house and in a better mood and able to rethink her life and what exactly went on through her head.

Really though, it was better than the time she'd dreamed of herself as a fat, pimply boy of about 15 who was begging of a male androgynous-looking classmate to do stuff to him.

Maybe she needed a shrink.

Maybe she needed to stop talking to her modern-era friends who had weird obsessions, such as blue men and yaoi.

_Maybe_, her subconscious tried to tell her, _you just need to acknowledge you are a girl in need of some _romance. _If you know what I mean_.

Kagome wondered when she had acquired such an annoying dark side of her mind. Still, she needed to clear her thoughts – possibly even scrub them with bleach – so, after a short debate, got out of bed entirely, dressed, checked the time, saw it was 2 am and decided to go outside and look at the stars. They were bound to be saner.

Said and done. Pants, blouse and jacket on, she left her room, then the house, entering the garden and seeing Inuyasha, back turned towards her, probably just arrived through the well and considering whether to wake her or no.

"I'm here," she said, cheerfully.

He turned, swiftly and she saw it wasn't, in fact, Inuyasha, but a quite impassive Sesshoumaru, measuring her from head to foot.

"Oh, no," she groaned. "No. This can't be one of those waking dreams. I hate those."

The demon lord looked at her some more, quietly. His expression was the same as always, unmoved, unchanged. Basically, he stared at her. She stared back at him. It turned into something akin to a blinking contest, each of them trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

"Oh, yeah," she sighed, in the end. "This is a waking dream."

"This Sesshoumaru finds that disturbing."

Well, he didn't _seem _disturbed, Kagome thought. But then again, he rarely seemed anything. "Yeah, well...." she muttered. "So do I."

"Was it not my younger brother that you fancied?" he continued.

She blinked, trying to find the connection with the conversation. It struck her, in the end, that the words she'd uttered had a double meaning and she blushed. "I meant a dream in which you keep thinking you wake up."

"I see." He paused a second, cocked his head slightly. "This is not one of those."

"Yeah, well. I don't trust that. You wouldn't be here if I were awake."

He approached her very quickly. Her breath caught in her throat as he extended a hand towards her and she tried to pull back, but found his palm covering her eyes.

"Can you see?" he asked.

"Erm. Of course not. There's a hand in front of my eyes," she pointed out.

"Dreams are not seen through the eyes. You would see if this were such a thing." He pulled his hand back.

"Oh. Erm. Thanks for the tip, I guess. So. Heh. What are _you_ doing here?"

Sesshoumaru looked up towards the sky with enough intent that she gazed up, too, wondering what had caught his attention. It turned out that nothing had, so she resumed looking at him instead. He didn't seem about to share any great secrets, so she had to start guessing to herself. It was obvious he'd come through the well. It was obvious that he had some motive to do so – the demon lord had never seemed the type to act randomly. And.... yep, that was just about all of her grand input for tonight.

"Tracing myself," he answered finally. "Demons live much longer than humans. I should still be alive. I should come meet myself."

"Isn't that breaking some sort of rule of time?" Kagome asked, frowning.

"I recall no rule of time. Where are they written?"

"I'd always assumed there were some. Don't change history, don't contact yourself, that sort of stuff." She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe there are none. So, any luck so far?"

"I have yet to see myself."

"Do you have any trace to follow?"

"I know where I am. I should come here."

"Maybe you don't want to?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, the tiny hint of a possible emotion that could ever be gathered from his expression saying that he hadn't considered that and had to reluctantly admit that she could be right.

"Maybe it's a bad location," she shrugged. "Or a bad timing."

"Location," he said with a slight thoughtful nod. "I do not approve of this place. A perfect copy of myself might be too obvious. Is there any space more open and deserted at this time of night?"

"There's a park really close to here," she said. "It's locked up at night."

"Then you shall take me there."

Kagome considered protesting and going back to bed, but then realized she didn't really want that. So she nodded in agreement. Spending her days and nights with demons on weird errands was getting to be a habit. To her surprise, he offered to carry her, so she climbed on his back and directed him towards the place.

It was beautiful even by night, she noticed. Even if she'd been in the wilderness at night many times, due to her ... medieval lifestyle … forests were not parks. And blooming trees beat greenery even at night. She marveled at how tame it seemed, how non-frightening, how much of a _park_ it was, how it was amazing by being so familiar. She'd expected strangeness, a de-familiarization, a....

Why was Sesshoumaru over there?

Oh.

She'd been right. He hadn't wanted to meet himself. But now he did. Away from prying eyes, the demon lord, past and present, could meet himself. Physically, they were very much the same. She wondered if he'd worn the right clothes on purpose, or if he'd worn the same style since forever and would still continue to look the same even when kimonos would be entirely obsolete.

The two watched each other as quietly as she would have assumed. No words were spoken at first, then the older of the two said:

"Her grandfather is watching. Every night. For me and Inuyasha. And for her. I have observed it myself, wishing to verify these words."

The younger nodded.

"I know what you are thinking. You will go into commerce. New empires are built from the power of money, not of land. You will extend your status in the human world."

The wind blew softly and cherry petals, fallen that day and not swept away yet were picked up by the wind and swirled around the three.

"But that is inconsequential. I am unlikely to be brought down by time," the older Sesshoumaru said with a shrug. Then he walked towards Kagome and actually _smiled_ at her, making her jump and the younger version of himself shift ever so slightly. "Do not be afraid," he told her. "You will fit well into the world of this time. The flower viewing tomorrow will only be the start towards building yourself a good life. Better than you would expect. Much better."

"Erm," she said, because she couldn't think of anything better.

Then he caught her chin in his fingers, tenderly and leaned forward, kissing her chastely on the lips. She froze in surprise. He pulled back a second after that, giving her another smile, a charming, rare, subtle thing. "Your first kiss, right? Stolen. The rest will only come when you give them."

She stared at the demon lord in front of her, then turned towards the younger Sesshoumaru, who seemed, under his usually cold exterior, to be as dumbstruck as she was.

"And that is why we needed privacy," the older one said. "I know what you are thinking. Yes."

Kagome turned from one to the other, staring, disbelieving and yet some part of her had enjoyed that closeness, that smooth attitude of the older Sesshoumaru. She was both outraged and astonished and she couldn't deny that she was also delighted.

_What that dream was trying to tell you was that you have a crush on him_, her subconscious supplied helpfully. 'Sod off,' she told it. 'It wasn't hinting anywhere in that direction and you _know_ it.' _No, no, really! It did! You have to look for the signs! The ssiiiiiggnnnss! _'Right. Of _course_. How didn't I see it. You were so ominous about it.' _Humph. See if I ever try to tell you anything else._

"It's going to be a distinctively interesting time," the older Sesshoumaru was telling his younger version, who blinked in approval.

"I think it's some sort of spring madness, right?" Kagome pipped in. "Weird dreams. Weird.... Erm...."

The two carbon copies of a powerful demon lord turned to look towards her and she gave a small "heh".

"You'd better take her home before her grandfather worries," the older one said.

So, that night, later in her bed, Kagome covered her eyes with the palm of her hand, saw that she couldn't see anything through it and decided that the younger Sesshoumaru had been wrong. This method didn't work. Because there was no way this was real.

Yeah. It was just pollen-induced fever.

Yeah.

….yeah.

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AN: Don't forget to review ;)


	2. Mother's Love

Disclaimer: Inuyasha is owned by Rumiko Takahashi

AN: Written for the #sesskag Spring Competition over on DA. Just a little something I wrote when I was feeling insanely fangirlish after watching a doctor who episode.

Mother's Love

Inuyasha loomed over her like an exaggerated picture of Dracula atop his newest victim. Not that she knew. She was sleeping. And that was, after all, the point. She was sleeping - and dreaming. Talking in her sleep.

As far as Inuyasha was concerned, there weren't too many words that began with "Sessh", and even fewer that began with "Sesshou", but maybe, just maybe, his hearing had gone wrong.

"Se..." she mumbled again. He leaned even closer, almost touching her, not even knowing he was reaching a very disturbing level of wrongness in his gesture. "Sesshouuuu...."

If his half-brother was bothering Kagome in her dreams, Inuyasha was going to find a way to kill him. However, a small part of him couldn't help but notice she didn't look distressed. That somehow worried him even more, especially since he had no idea what he was supposed to do in that case.

"Sessshhhouuukai. Sesshoukai."

...

Well.

_That_ didn't make any sense.

Inuyasha thankfully ceased looming. He looked around for the only other person who wasn't sleeping, located him and made his way towards Miroku, confused, missing Kagome's muttered "Sesshoumaru" entirely. Not that _that_ word had any importance either, since she was busy having a crazy dream of being a teacher and having nearly everybody she knew in her class. The frown on her face was due to the fact that Sesshoumaru was playing catch with her mother and not paying any attention to her pink board where she'd written F=m * a to prove that Shintoism started out as a religion from a lake on Mount Doom. It goes on to show that while some dreams can be prophetic, others are deeply revealing of a person's subconscious desires, and yet others are actually about things Freud had on his mind, there is a number of them that can reduce anybody's psychological/religious interpretation to dust. But even those can be used as poetry topics.

As Miroku was explaining that Sesshoukai was the Buddhist precept against killing, not far away, one very stern, cold and beautiful female Inuyoukai was busy looking down upon the girl saying her son's name. The sleeping Kagome had, of course, no clue she was quite popular in the dog demon world that night. She would, however, in precisely 8 minutes, think she was quite popular with one single specimen of that breed.

6 minutes left to sleep. Not that it was obvious right then.

The beautiful lady walked towards the girl, not quite invisible, but unnoticed by Inuyasha and the supposedly attentive guard-for-the-night. She leaned down over her, studying her features, trying to discover something and, like many other mothers, discovering that the girl her son had chosen was quite unworthy of him. She was human. She was a person with purifying powers. She was unsuitable and weak, silly, superficial, she smelled badly, she had the approximate senses and reflexes of a nearly blind, deaf, dying old cat, too young, too rude, too disrespectful, hung around the wrong company, bad taste in clothes, eyes too wide, hair too wavy, face too innocent, hands too thin, eyelashes too curled, ears too round, bad cook, couldn't sew, not subtle enough, didn't know poetry, had no talent for politics and her children would be ugly.

It didn't occur once to Sesshoumaru's mother that she might have been making those things up, or that her thoughts might possibly be prejudiced or unfair. She was simply scrutinizing this little wench and finding her wanting. Her son was too good for this girl. And that was final. Mothers were always right.

She reached out a claw to turn the girl's head a bit to the side so she could better get a glimpse of those ghastly ears and see if there were any secrets regarding her fickle, cheating heart that would surely run after some weakling, making her son a laughingstock, in the shape of her mandible, when she heard a low growl.

"Sesshoumaru," she said very softly. She, unlike this girl, knew her son well enough to recognize him from the tonality of his non-articulated sounds. "She is unworthy of you."

"That is my decision," he answered. "Don't touch her." And then, bowing slightly, "Please." The last word was politeness, not plea - she knew the difference. She herself had taught it to him.

"I do not intend to _harm_ her."

There was a pause in which the two considered each other. Of course Sesshoumaru knew she would not interfere in his life, no matter what her opinion of his choices was. Of course she knew he knew it. And of course he knew that she had said what she had said as a reproach.

"Perhaps we should wake her," he said. That too was a reproach - against her manner, even if it was also a recognition and an acceptance of her desire to see this girl and study her more closely.

The subtext would have gone on if Inuyasha hadn't finally realized that they weren't quite as alone as they'd suspected and cried out something against his brother. Well. The wind had changed, carrying their scents and alerting the half-demon as to their presence. Without any sort of hesitation, Sesshomaru bent down, scooped Kagome up, woke her in the process, apologized to her, told his brother he'd bring her back presently and lead the way, his mother in tow, in a random direction, for some privacy. All in about 5 seconds.

When they were finally what they deemed to be far enough away from the other campers, Sesshoumaru put the girl down and said, "This is my mother."

To her credit, the barely-awoken girl snapped to attention, bowed down as deeply as she could and introduced herself as politely as humanly possible. And the Japanese language is especially built to push that possibility to its limit.

Sesshoumaru watched as his mother nodded in reply, establishing their roles once and for all. However, he couldn't help but notice that she appeared very vaguely pleased to have the girl react correctly.

"She is not worthy of you."

This was repeated, but now with a new purpose: to see Kagome react, to study her response. She cringed, but bowed again, humbly, and apologized for being so unsuitable.

Perhaps that was when his mother started being amused instead of disgruntled with her, Sesshoumaru figured.

"She doesn't seem to have too many qualities, Sesshoumaru. I see none." A test to both of them, who should speak, who should say what. Kagome bowed even deeper, turning a profound scarlet.

"Hn," he replied.

His mother thought that even if the girl was much beneath him, the young demon lord before her certainly had his own foolish moments, such as this one.

"I do," he completed, looking at the human with his cool, dispassionate eyes. Or, the female dog demon figured, maybe he really was starting to catch on when it came to feelings.

"Well. I shall expect to see them. Goodbye."

She left nearly without a sound, all traces of her disappearing as if they had never been. Kagome looked around her fearfully, then at Sesshoumaru.

"Are you always going to run off with me?" she asked.

"Two times does not make a rule," he said.

"Well. There was the first, in my time, where you picked me up and made me lead you to a park. To meet yourself, the older you. The one who went through time the usual way. Remember that night?"

"Yes. That is all. No other times when I ran off with you."

"No. Your.... Older version. He... You.... He came again one night and took me out of bed and we went far away. _Far_ away. In a forest. I trust him. You. Both of you. We talked. He didn't say anything about this, your mother, you taking me away again."

"I shall take you back."

"I'm not worried."

Sesshoumaru looked at her, trying to figure out what she wanted from him. His mother, whose face was impenetrable for so many others, felt like an open book compared to this girl whose emotions could be read on her expression so easily.

"Then?" he asked.

"He said I must demand a kiss the next time I see you."

"Do you want it?"

She blushed. "I _am_ demanding it." And then she blushed harder. Sesshoumaru couldn't help but feel slightly cheated on by himself, because this was definitely a girl whom he will have kissed before, if that was the correct tense.

Uncertainly, but not showing it, he edged closer to her, wondering if this was how it was going to be. His first kiss with her, but not her first kiss with him. Awkward. Demanded. Right after seeing his mother. It wasn't how he wanted it to go, but he couldn't bring himself to refuse.

And then Inuyasha popped up, slashing towards him tooth and claw, snarling, not even bothering to verbally demand what was going on.

"_You bastard_," the half-demon growled.

Sesshoumaru mentally prepared himself for a fight against his brother, putting aside his desire to lower himself to the level of showing that he was, in fact, quite angry with this turn of events. He would be cool.

"SIT!"

Kagome's voice resounded through the forest, making even the full demon stop in his tracks with the power of her cry.

"He tried to kiss you!" Inuyasha protested, struggling to get up and getting sat again. "He tried to kiss you."

"And I wanted him to succeed!" she snapped back, then turned apologetically to Sesshoumaru. "I honestly didn't know _this_ was going to happen." Then back to Inuyasha. "But I need you to understand that I _want_ this."

"But...."

"I _want_ this." Again, towards Sesshoumaru. "Maybe I should take care of this on my own. Erm."

"I shall go," Sesshoumaru nodded, feeling very, very cheated by the world. Sure, he hadn't really wanted the kiss to start with, but now that he had been denied it....

"Do come back soon," she invited. "Please?"

"Kagome!"

"Sit! I think the point was that - sit! Inuyasha! Sit! - I need to get some things out of the way as soon as possible."

"I understand," Sesshoumaru nodded. He vaguely considered telling her he'd be back in a certain amount of time, but couldn't decide on one and then felt it wasn't necessary after all, so he simply turned and left.

Not very far away, the demon lady, mother of one dog demon, chuckled ever so slightly as she watched the events unfolding. She really hoped that the girl didn't have the same power upon her son as she did upon the half-breed - although she doubted it. She especially liked the part when Kagome climbed on top of Inuyasha to drive her point better into him and stop him from trying to run after his brother. Well. She had spirit. She was still quite unworthy, but also amusing. And if her son found her interesting, as a mother, the demon lady might as well let him have his way. Mothers were kind. Oh, so very kind.

Especially when they were getting some fun out of it.

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AN: Don't forget to review ;)


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